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arXiv · 0910.3674

Perturbative and Non-perturbative N =8 Supergravity

Massimo Bianchi·Sergio Ferrara·Renata Kallosh
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Abstract

We study extremal black holes, their ADM mass and area of the horizon in N = 8 supergravity. Contrary to intuition gained from N = 2, 4 theories, in N = 8 supergravity BPS states may become massless only at the boundary of moduli space. We show that stringy states described in [1], which have no mass gap and survive in the toroidal compactification in addition to massless states of perturbative N = 8 supergravity, display a null singularity in four-dimensional space-time, when viewed as solutions of N = 8 Einstein equations. We analyze known methods of resolving such singularities and explain why they do not work in D=4, N = 8 supergravity. We discuss possible implications for the issue of UV finiteness of the four-dimensional N = 8 perturbation theory.

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Massimo Bianchi, Sergio Ferrara, Renata Kallosh. 2010-06-24. Perturbative and Non-perturbative N =8 Supergravity. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2010.05.049

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